American Arsenal

A Century of Waging War

Patrick Coffey

Covers every conflict in which America played an active role in the 20th century

Each chapter deals with a separate weapon and inventor, allowing them to be read individually or sequentially

Dispells simplistic ideas espoused by politicians and pundits on both sides, allowing the reader to understand the complexity of America's military development

American Arsenal

A Century of Waging War

Patrick Coffey

Description

When America declared war on Germany in 1917, the United States had only 200,000 men under arms, a twentieth of the German army's strength, and its planes were no match for the German air force. Less than a century later, the United States today has by far the world's largest military budget and provides over 40% of the world's armaments.

In American Arsenal Patrick Coffey examines America's military transformation from an isolationist state to a world superpower. Focusing on fifteen specific developments, Coffey illustrates the unplanned, often haphazard nature of this transformation, which has been driven by political, military, technological, and commercial interests. Beginning with Thomas Edison's work on submarine technology, American Arsenal moves
from World War I to the present conflicts in the Middle East, covering topics from chemical weapons, strategic bombing, and the nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union, to "smart" bombs, hand-held anti-aircraft missiles, and the Predator and other drone aircrafts. Coffey traces the story of each advance in weaponry from drawing board to battlefield, and includes fascinating portraits of the men who invented and deployed them -Edward Teller, "the father of the hydrogen bomb", Robert Oppenheimer, head of atomic bomb design at Los Alamos; Curtis LeMay, who led the fire-bombing of Japan; Herman Kahn, nuclear strategist and a model for Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove; Abraham Karem, inventor of the Predator, and many others. Coffey also examines the increasingly detached nature of modern
American warfare- the ultimate goal is to remove soldiers from the battlefield entirely- which limits casualties (211,454 in Vietnam and only 1,231 in the Gulf War) but also lessens the political and psychological costs of going to war.

Examining the backstories of every major American weapons development, American Arsenal is essential reading for anyone interested in the continuing evolution of the U.S. defense program.

American Arsenal

A Century of Waging War

Patrick Coffey

Table of Contents

Introduction Edison at War Gassing the Senator Mitchell's War in Three Dimensions The Bombsight Precision Bombing Tested Napalm The SwitchThe Atomic Bomb The Weapon Not Used The Hydrogen Bomb Missiles Destructive Strategies Vietnam-the Limits of Analytical Thinking Star WarsSmart Bombs and Drones Epilogue

American Arsenal

A Century of Waging War

Patrick Coffey

Author Information

Patrick Coffey is a Visiting Scholar in the Office for History of Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Cathedrals of Science.

American Arsenal

A Century of Waging War

Patrick Coffey

Reviews and Awards

"Patrick Coffey s American Arsenal: A Century of Waging War offers a brisk account of the development of key weapons and technologies, from poison gas to drones, in that arsenal. Many of his stories are fascinating, gruesome, even lurid, and some are largely unknown." --Los Angeles Review of Books

"Coffey delivers an interesting book that introduces the general reader to a little-known perspective on military history." --Publisher's Weekly

Praise for Patrick Coffey's Cathedrals of Science
"Weaving together the lives of the leaders of modern chemistry, Coffey shows how fights over priority, backstabbing, cronyism, and grudges shaped the history of chemistry just as much as the actual discoveries. It is an effective antidote to the bromide that science is the work of selfless, Spock-like automatons."--Books and Culture

"A gripping page-turning narrative that elegantly combines popular science with a serious history of science."--Chemistry World

"This superbly crafted book traces the intertwined careers of scientific Titans whose work, despite human failings, created major parts of the conceptual edifice of modern physical science. It is a grand saga, as illuminating for our era as the Canterbury Tales are for the age that erected great masonry cathedrals."--Dudley Herschbach, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

"[Coffey's] book zeroes in on how the military has helped to transform America, from the growing pains of World War I up through today... impressive in its focus. With a 'behind-the-scenes' approach to many war-related and political topics and extensively researched... it brings fresh perspective and information to a topic that is sometimes overlooked. " --Tony Bandy, History Writing with Tony

American Arsenal

A Century of Waging War

Patrick Coffey

From Our Blog

By Patrick Coffey
Even before the Manhattan Project began, Edward Teller found the idea of building the Super (a hydrogen bomb) irresistible. After the Project's end, Teller prepared a fifty-nine-page report, 'A Prima Facie Proof of the Feasibility of the Super,' which he presented at an April 1946 conference at Los Alamos.